Justice Brett Kavanaugh raised eyebrows this week when he suggested that the Supreme Court will review the constitutionality of state gun bans at some point in the next two years.

However, critics were quick to excoriate him along with Justice Amy Coney Barrett for allowing those bans to currently remain in effect. 

Case concerns Maryland's so-called "assault weapons" law

One of those critics is Western Journal columnist Randy DeSoto, who took Kavanaugh and Barrett to task in an opinion piece published on Wednesday. 

DeSoto began by noting how conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch were willing to hear arguments in Snope v. Brown.

The case concerns a Maryland law which prohibits the sale and possession of semiautomatic firearms which it deems to be "assault weapons," including the AR-15 and similar rifles.

Those challenging the law argue that it is precluded by the Second Amendment and inconsistent with the Supreme Court's 2022 holding in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen.

Kavanaugh admits that SCOTUS "should" address the issue

However, DeSoto observed that a four to 10 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last August found otherwise.

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in his majority opinion that the court would "decline to wield the Constitution to declare that military-style armaments which have become primary instruments of mass killing and terrorist attacks in the United States are beyond the reach of our nation’s democratic processes.”

DeSoto pointed out that despite Kavanaugh voting against hearing an appeal of that ruling, he signaled that it should be overturned.

"Although the Court today denies certiorari, a denial of certiorari does not mean that the Court agrees with a lower-court decision or that the issue is not worthy of review," the justice acknowledged.

"Additional petitions for certiorari will likely be before this Court shortly and, in my view, this Court should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon, in the next Term or two," he added.

Columnist calls Kavanaugh's decision "odd"

DeSoto called Kavanaugh's decision "odd" given how he admitted that "States such as Maryland that prohibit AR–15s are something of an outlier."

The columnist then highlighted countervailing remarks from Justice Thomas, who decried putting the question off for another year.

"I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America. We have avoided deciding it for a full decade," Thomas stated.